Engineers Salvador Fuentes and Francisco Ramos, from the Higher Technical School of Engineering at the University of Seville (ETSI), have received the Endesa Chair Award, which recognizes the research work of university students. Rafael Sánchez Durán, General Manager of Endesa in Andalusia and Extremadura, and Emilio Jiménez, Director of Networks for Endesa in Andalusia and Extremadura, presented the awards at the Higher Technical School of Engineering in Seville for this 18th edition of the Endesa Chair Awards. Each award includes a prize of €1,000 per category, with the aim of continuing to support future engineers in Andalusia.

Among the criteria considered when selecting the winners were primarily the originality of the proposals, their forward-looking vision and evolution, and the application of new technologies to the electrical grid infrastructure. “At Endesa, we are committed to continuing to support future generations of engineers, and these awards, which we have been presenting for 18 years, are a testament to that. We have received projects of high academic quality, a sign of the great value of the generations of engineers to come,” Rafael Sánchez Durán emphasized during the awards ceremony.

Representing the Higher Technical School of Engineering of Seville was its director, Francisco Rodríguez Rubio, who highlighted the importance of the collaboration between Endesa and the School, "which allows us to fulfill one of the University's missions, namely the transfer of knowledge. The fruitful relationship between the two is noteworthy, and we are grateful for the contributions made by the chair in sponsoring events, scholarships, collaborations, doctoral theses, etc."

From among the more than 600 projects submitted, the jury of experts selected 16 finalists (10 from Bachelor's degree plus 6 from Master's degree), with the winners being the engineers Salvador Fuentes and Francisco Ramos.

Aeronautical engineer Salvador Fuentes, born in Córdoba, has won the Master's Thesis category for his work, "Technical, Economic, and Environmental Feasibility Analysis of a New Electrical System for the Autonomous City of Ceuta." His work received this distinction for proposing a new electrical system for an isolated environment like Ceuta, which is dependent on fossil fuels. His proposal suggests a shift towards models that guarantee security of supply and the integration of renewable energies, evolving towards a new, more efficient and sustainable energy model to address the challenges posed by the so-called energy trilemma.

On the other hand, Francisco Ramos, a graduate in Industrial Technology Engineering from El Puerto de Santa María, won with his final degree project, "Demand Prediction and Renewable Generation with Deep Learning: Application to the Optimization of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations." His project offers solutions to address the future paradigm of the electrical system following the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. A key challenge is the support that the grid infrastructure will need to provide for the large-scale implementation of electric vehicle charging stations. The proposal involves using intelligent planning algorithms, based on data and machine learning techniques, to understand the behavior of electric vehicle charging and photovoltaic generation.

The creation of the Endesa Red Chair Award took place in 2004 following agreements reached between the Company and the University of Seville to grant the award, establish a framework for scientific and technical collaboration and promote the doctoral program of the University of Seville called "Electrical Power Systems".